Thursday 30th July - What small DFW things will you do today?

MuddyFunster

Started using an App to record day-to-day expenses - seems I'm spending about £4 a day on soft drinks at the moment...

It's a great way for me to really quantify the "oh sod it, it's only £..." purchases.

twiggy86

That sounds just like my OH! It is crazy how all those little bits amount to bigger bits than we realise!

foxgloves

Hi Frugalistas,
Have managed a few bits today, although the on-off, on-off rain showers aren't helping as I'd intended an afternoon in the veggie garden sowing seeds for late crops. Never mind, think weekend weather is supposed to be better so will postpone till then.
Today's small things....because as we know, they all add up:
*Changed bed linen & loaded washer ready for a cheapo overnight wash.
*Cleaned whole house using minimal products (just 'Stardrops' & own brand loo cleaner) & washable cloths.
*Finally got round to tackling a bad stain on the kitchen rug which I thought would need some fancypants carpet cleaner to fetch it out........nope! It came out with just a micro-fibre cloth & water.
*Did a few surveys & cashed in my Ipsos points for another £10 John Lewis voucher. Am now at £28 on both Ugov & Onepoll & half way to a Sainsbury's gift card again on Toluna.
*Checked our Sainsbury's online grocery delivery order - everything present & correct.
*Bargain of this week's shop was a pack of 'Basics' frying steak - 700g for £4.50. Ordered it because I put Beef Kerala on our meal plan for next week & the smaller packs of steak didn't seem that good value. Opened pack & split into 3 - one will do the Kerala, one will be used to make Kati kebabs & I cut the remaining steak into little strips to use in a stir-fry.
*While I was splitting things up, I also split bread & froze as 2 halves as it keeps better that way when there are only 2 of us & we're both calorie-counting.
*Fridge Mission to check no food going to waste in there. Found 2 spare green peppers which aren't needed this week. Chopped one & froze for next week's tuna rice & sliced & froze the other for a stir-fry. Also one manky lime, which turned out to be fine on the inside, so squeezed the juice & froze for next time I want to make a salsa. Can't bear wasting food.
*Paid another 50p piece into my sealed pot.
*Cut more salad for tonight's meal, also some fresh basil & picked the first couple of our cherry tomatoes.
*Did a competition.
*Checked ebay listings. 3 more magazines sold last night. Still lots of watchers.
*Sewed up a weird hole/pull in my favourite purple cardi.
*Too wet to wash & stretch my newly knitted garment as the instructions say to hang it up on the line to dry, so do some knitting for the present box, starting with a pair of socks.
*Moved a few things around in the bedroom to freshen up the look without spending any money. Am planning on doing lots more of this in various rooms throughout Aug & Sept.
Pouring with rain again, so gardening afternoon defo postponed.
have a good day all of you, & keep your hands on your pence.
DNMS - That's good to know about the interview. I never mind quite so much when I know it was a really strong shortlist & the feedback is helpful & constructive.
XjojoX - I love the saying in your signature - "Breathe out the past, breathe in the future". And I have to say, Missis, that debt total is starting to look positively titchy! You should be really pleased with yourself.
f x

princess_pea

Hi all,


The sun is finally shining here today - the day I decided to wear tights and boots to work as I was fed up with feeling cold!


- It's not a NSD as need to go to Aldi on way home from work - I have a list which I'm sticking to though and we still have enough meals in the freezer to last until next week. I'm paying in cash too so I have a limit as to what I can spend
- All meals from stores
- FPL and surveys to do
- I'm waiting for the porters to deliver another birthday present for the OH that arrived today - a case of root beer. They're bringing it over rather than me picking it up from reception because it's heavy, bless them!
- Need to hoover the car out when I get home which I didn't do the other night. It's more dog hair than car at the minute!


Have a fab day everyone

1HANNAH

Afternoon all,


Well the sun is shining here in South Wales so we've been out making the most of it
Up early as I needed to give my sister a lift to a job interview. Called in at Sainsbobs to pick up a few bits for a picnic in the park with friends. Collect boys from my parents and called in at Co0p to see if they had the COS freebie in but they didn't, did manage to get some ys frubes (which we used for the picnic) and 4 packs of crumpets reduced from 65p to 29p fab as these are the ones dh/ds's have every weekend for breakfast.
We went to the park, had a good catch up with friends and played in the park then played tennis. Back home now til 3.45 to go for swimming lessons. Will take a drink with me.




:heart: Switched mobile off over night done
:heart: Heating off (get fleece blankets out if needed) done
:heart: Check FPL done
:heart: Do 5 searches on inbox pounds
:heart: The toucan box I ordered as a freebie has come so must cancel the payment before next one due done
:heart: Check Banking/update spreadsheets done
:heart: Unsubscribe from junk emails
:heart: Make dh's lunch for work tomorrow done
:heart: Check http://ashleighmoneysaver.co.uk/ for daily chance of winning £50 done
:heart: Check https://www.luckyphone.co.uk/ - like FPL done
:heart: All meals from stores - plan & prep - done
:heart: Try to use something out of the use up food box done
:heart: Use something out of pamper box
:heart: Read a few pages of a book
:heart: Check out flylady email and complete todays task
:heart: Clean & tidy fridge - if I keep on top of this daily, we don't seem to waste any food. done
:heart: Clean & tidy freezer (update freezer list) done
:heart: Ironing - switch off before last item to use residual heat

:heart: Do some Swagbucks
:heart: Check email survey opportunities
:heart: Check checkoutsmart done and received confirmation of payout
:heart: Check shopitize - code for freebie is 15RONE - for a 100g toblerone
:heart: Check TCB/Snap Save - done
:heart: Check Quidco/clicksnap done
:heart: Check 02 prioritydone

allydowd

Afternoon DFW-Jedis,

OH's trip to the dentist was complicated, as predicted. :mad: Basically, her damaged bridgework probably can't be saved. She's going back in two weeks for a second opinion, but I can't see the diagnosis changing; disintegrating is disintegrating. Shelled out £4.75 for diagnostic x-rays.

Came home and retreated to the garden until OH calmed down from giant toddler-sized tantrum.

Nillionaire Month Two:

:grinheart OH harvested a bucket load of Spanish and red onions and garlic.

:grinheart Weeded garden to within an inch of its life. Free exercise and stress buster.

:grinheart Dead-headed roses in the front garden, evicted dead pansies and saved pansy seeds for next year.

:grinheart OH put fuchsias grown from cuttings into pots vacated by pansies.


Stay away from the dark side, Jedis.

Bobarella

Oh no Ally sympathy to your OH, its never nice to feel like you have a huge bill for something unpleasant that you couldnt avoid. Loving all your positive small things for the day though.

Thanks for the start JoJo, & you also sound very busy!

Determined - Im glad you got good feedback. You are right in saying it isnt often the case. And the fact you did so well with all you have had going on is a great sign of things to come I'd say.

Dawn - Hope you really enjoyed that scone, with a big dollop of jam?

Twiggy -Dogs this time, good god, you are game at Twiggy Towers. I hope they are of the well behaved variety. Yes thank you, the biggest tech fail I had today was the bottom falling off the darned blender just as I lifted the jug full of carrot soup up. To say I swore is putting it mildly. Unlike my swearing. Which wasnt.

FVD - Thats kind of your mum. Interesting astrology there too.

Princess - What are the super 6 at the moment if you dont mind me picking your brains? I've noticed that Co-op are doing similar.

Digging - Well done on getting your super spreadsheet done. It does help to be very organised I think.

MuddyFunster - Just love your user name. That is all

Foxgloves - Lots of kitchen organising again today I see. Im on a use it up week myself. Tonight, the remainder of the cheese pasta bake with chicken & bacon from the weekend. May chuck a fresh garlic bread in as well if Im feeling crazy

Hannah - Addicted to the shopping apps at present. You will appreciate my pain the other day when I discovered that a) I'd forgotten & put 2 packs of sausages through on the same reciept, meaning £1 claimable instead of 2 on 2 seperate ones as per your excellent advice. 2) It only applied to Mr T not Mr S where I'd just shopped. From the sour expression on my face you'd think I was a baby who'd just had their bottle stolen. Do you plan your picnic purchases around whats good to claim at the moment just out of interest?


And so to Bob's day.

Well. Still busy. Worked flat out to get the stock back up after yesterdays clean me out day. Made 3 cakes, sausage rolls, veg rolls, all the salads. And a carrot and ginger soup. Lets not mention the bit where the bottom fell out of the blender and all the soup fell out & made my kitchen filthy. No. Moving swiftly on.
People in pretty much all day, but not mad like yesterday. Still good takings. Tips about £4. I say about as I didnt clean out the jar yesterday so I cant be 100%.
Uploaded 3 recipets to check out smart as they are giving 5p per recipet at the moment for any you upload.
Found 20p in the foot tunnel so picked that up.
A big one for me, OH has been offered a 15 month 0% deal, so I have balance transfered all but £500 of our remaining debt onto it, thats all I can fit. This will save us £20 a month in interest as the current deal was expiring. I have therefore decided as my target for the month, I am going to aim to clear completely the remainder of the debt, so thats a massive £400 ish. Give or take. Some of that will be a lot easier now, due to the EF being complete that gives me almost £200 straight away, and our min payment is about £100. So hopefully I can fill in the gap with some of the insurance money. Watch this signature

Bob

P.S I have been very mean to myself. I am very tired, but want to tick something off my list of house jobs. So I came straight in and sprayed the bath, & sink, loo etc with cleaner, meaning I have to go now and complete cleaning the bathroom before I can have a wallow. I am so the nastiest person to myself ever

1HANNAH

Bob, That's great news I'll keep and eye on your signature!
I feel your pain re shopping apps, when I've done stuff like that I've been gutted. No the picnic food wasn't planned from the apps, We were going with a friend & her kids so she was in charge of sandwiches & crisps and I took the drinks, some fruit & biscuits (and the ys frubes!) I bet your soup would have been lovely!




Ally, sorry to hear OH's appointment didn't go well.

foxgloves

Well, I decided not to be such a wimp about the rain.......the postponed gardening was supposed to now be a knitting afternoon but was turning into a 'wasting time on the internet' afternoon instead, so I went down to the greenhouse to get a load of jobs done in there. They needed doing & it was undercover. Discovered that the hot long green chillies had been growing mad, so I started an ice-cream container for the freezer for those & it's half full already. I like to pick half the chillies green for freezing, then let the other half go red so I can dry them....that way, I get 2 ingredients out of one crop.
The rain stopped, so I weeded & dug the bed intended for seed-sowing so as to get ahead of myself for tomorrow. There was even treasure......I dug up 3 small red onions we'd missed, potted up 2 lovely self-sown foxgloves, an aquilegia & even dug up part of an old clay pipe!! Free fitness too!
f x

allydowd

Freebie:

:grinheart Free 100 Nectar Points when you link your eBay account to your Nectar account. Go to the link and click Link Account. You'll now earn 1 point per £1 spent on eBay and get 100 points free. (Link)